In nearly every nook of Kathy Travis's office, you'll find her daughter, Jessica Duke, both in happy times and in memory.
"It has been two years and three months,” said Travis.
It was Jan. 29, 2021, when Duke, 25, died of an accidental drug overdose. Travis found her daughter after she had taken meth laced with fentanyl.
“She did not want to die. I mean, I just talked to her the night before. She did not want to die, and it was just devastating,” she said.
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Today, Travis continues the advocacy work she started when Jessica's drug addiction began.
As a board member for Winning the Fight, she helps educate parents and kids about the dangers of drugs, including fentanyl.
According to the DEA, the synthetic opioid is often made to look like prescription drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax or Adderall.
Only two milligrams can kill.
"I feel like we take one step forward and two steps back almost. Because we're talking to people about it, but sometimes when you talk to parents and kids, they just don't see the reality of it,” said Travis.
But Travis said Tuesday’s news from the Department of Justice hopefully moves the needle, with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing the largest-ever international crackdown on fentanyl trafficking on the dark web.
According to the DOJ, Operation SpecTor resulted in nearly 300 arrests along with the seizure of more than $50 million and hundreds of kilograms of drugs, including 64 kilos of fentanyl.
“It's something. And as long as we can keep doing that, they saved a life today. Maybe they saved another Jessica,” she said.
Still, Travis says people must continue to fight.
“People don't want to talk about it. They don't want to think that it can happen to them or to their family or their community, but it can and it will. Because the people that are selling it, this is exactly where they're going to sell it because nobody will expect it to happen,” said Travis.
